Realizations
by playwright82
Summary: He sees her across the room at a party and realizes he loves her.  Slight AU.  Only rated T because I'm paranoid.  Harry/Ginny one-shot.


_This lovely world belongs to J. K. Rowling. I own nothing and am not making a profit from this._

A/N: I thought of this suddenly when I was reading something for class and had to write it. It is the moment when Harry realizes he loves Ginny, but it is slightly AU. Harry is the captain of the Quidditch team in this version. This takes place during OotP, and this is what I think should have happened after the last quidditch game of the season. Rated T only because I'm paranoid.

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><p>Realizations<p>

It was the final Quidditch match of the year and they had won. Even with Harry, Fred and George kicked off the team. Ron had played his best game ever and Ginny had taken Harry's seeker position with ease. Harry had made his rounds congratulating his team on a great game. There was just one person he hadn't congratulated yet.

He looked around for Ginny. She was standing with Fred and George across the common room from him. They were standing next to the fireplace. At this time of year it was lit for light rather than warmth and being a magical fire did not emit much heat.

Harry paused for a moment and stared. She looked…different…in the glow of the fire. He had never noticed the way the firelight brought out the colors in her red hair. In the fire, her hair itself seemed to be made of fire and shimmered like dancing flames. He started to make his way toward her when another thought struck him. _She doesn't look like a little girl anymore._

He finally got to where she was with her brothers and gave her a brief hug. "Congratulations, Ginny. I knew I made the right choice as my replacement."

Ginny was slightly surprised at the hug from Harry, but returned it without hesitation. When his arms tightened momentarily she responded in kind. Her crush on him, that had started when she was ten, had never died. If anything, it grew year after year until she realized she was in love with Harry Potter. She tried to kill her crush on him by dating other guys, but they were never quite right.

After thanking him for the congratulations, she let him wander away. He stood at the edge of the crowd watching the party, but his eyes never left her for long. He was surprised when she walked over to him. She grabbed his hand and said, "I need to talk to you. In private." He let her lead him through the portrait hole.

She led him to the Room of Requirement, or rather, where the door to the Room of Requirement should have been. After doing the obligatory walk and think method of opening the room, the door appeared. Inside was the same room they had used for DA meetings until Umbridge had shut them down.

Ginny heaved a sigh and said, "There. Now we can't be bothered."

"What do you need to talk to me about?" He had a feeling, but he wanted to be sure.

"Harry, you know I've been in love with you for the last four years. Do you feel anything for me? Anything more than friendship, I mean?"

Harry looked down into her brown eyes and realized that the answer she wanted to hear, needed to hear was the same answer he wanted, needed to give, or risk losing her forever. "Yes," he answered simply.

To prove it, he briefly brushed his lips over hers. This kiss was nothing like his kiss with Cho before Christmas break. Although the kiss was brief, it was searing in its intensity.

She looked up at him into his green eyes and cupped his cheek in her hand. He reveled in the feel of her palm against his skin. She buried her other hand in his unruly black hair and pulled him down for another kiss. She crushed her lips to his and they both put all the passion they had into that one kiss.

When they finally came up for air, which could have been minutes or hours later, neither of them knew, Harry looked into those big brown eyes and lost himself. "I will always love you, Ginny Weasly. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, you can rest secure in the knowledge that you are in my heart now and forever."

Ginny looked into those green eyes that everyone said were his mothers, but were uniquely his. She lost herself in their warmth and knew he spoke the truth. She responded in kind. "I will always love you, Harry Potter. No matter where you go or what you may have to do, you can rest secure in the knowledge that you were in my heart the day we met and will remain there forever."

He kissed her one more time and said, "We better return to the common room before your brothers decide I have abducted you and they form a mob to look for me."

Ginny, ever the little sister rebelling against her overprotective brothers, raised one eyebrow and said, "Let them try. I'll tell them I abducted you. And besides all we did was snog. A little snogging never hurt anybody. It's not like we did anything wrong."

Harry grinned at her. "So should we make it official?"

"Of course." She raised one eyebrow. "Unless of course you want me to form a mob to hunt you down for getting my hopes up. Now that I've got you Harry Potter I'm never letting you go."

He leaned toward her and said just before his lips touched hers, "I wouldn't have it any other way."


End file.
